Diaper



March 7, 1967 A. w. NIEMER ETAI. 3,307,550

DIAPER Filed Jan. '7, '1964 INVL'NTORS` ARTHUR W, NIEMER RICHARD V.PUTNAM Y United States Patent O 3,307,550 DIAPER Arthur W. Niemer andRichard V. Putnam, Spartanburg,

S.C., assignors to Deering Miiliken Research Corporation, Spartanburg,S.C., a corporation of Delaware Filed Jan. 7, 1964, Ser. No. 336,174 1Claim. (Cl. 12S-284) This invention relates to a new improved stretchdiaper and more particularly to a knitted absorbent stretch diaper.

K-nit diapers prior to this invention have been known but theircommercial success has not been good due to the porosity of the knitmaterial which allowed the secretion and urine from the baby -to pa-sstherethrough and soil anything or anyone that came in contact with thediaper. In an attempt to correct this situation various methods offolding and plying the knit diaper have been attempted in order toincrease the amount of material between the baby and the exterior of thediaper in order rto provide a more absorptive diaper. Such attempts wereonly partially successful since it was found that to provide a knitdiaper of equivalent absorption properties to that of a gauze diaper itwas necessary to increase the selling price of such diaper to such anextent that it was no longer competitive with the gauze type diaper.

Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an efiicientknit diaper which is competitive in price.

A second object of the invention is to provide a knit dia-per which hasincreased absorption qualities.

Another object of the invention is to provide a stretch knit diaperwhich will fi-t many sized babies and will stretch to fit the baby asthe baby grows.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a stretch knitdiaper which has increased absorption qualities due to superioradsorption properties of the knit material.

A fifth object of the invention is to provide a weft knitted absorbentstretch diaper which has good restoring properties as well as improvedabsorption qualities.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an inexpensiveknit stretch diaper with improved absorption properties.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become clearlyapparent as the specification proceeds to describe the invention withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a blown up View of the knit diaper material;

FIGURE 2 is a partial view of the preferred form of the diaper;

FIGURE 3 is a partial view of the diaper shown in FIGURE 2 prior tocompletion;

FIGURE 4 is a modification of the dia-per shown in FIGURE 2; and

FIGURE 5 is a further modification of the diaper shown in FIGURE 2.

Looking at FIGURE 1 the numeral 10 represents a cot-ton knit fabric ofgood quality with the alternate courses shaded black to aid in tracingthe passage of the course from front to back. The knit fabric isessentially formed of two rib fabrics interlinked together so -that thewales of one fabric lie between the wales of the other fabric on boththe face and back resulting in a cloth alike on both sides. Thisconstruction results in a knit fabric in which adjacent surfaces of theyIa-rn are much closer together creating a cellular effect whichincreases the adsorptive effect of the cloth. In other words, theoverlapping wale construction of the fabric reduces 3,307,550 PatentedMar. 7, 1967 the open area between adjacent yarn surfaces and anymoisture applied to the fabric tends to bridge the area between the-adjacent yarn surfaces rather than pass through as in prior diaper knitfabrics. As a comparison the number of open areas between adjacent yarnsurfaces of the interlinked knit diaper for the same overall fabric areawill be twice the number of open areas in a normal rib knit fabric. Eachof the open areas between adjacent yarn surfaces in the interlinked knitdiaper, therefore, will be approximately one-half the area of theopenings between adjacent yarn surfaces of the conventional rib knitdiaper, thereby greatly enhancing the absorptive properties of thefabric which results in greater overall absorption efciency of thediaper.

Knit fabric constructed as above presents much smoother surfaces thanrib cloths and may be stretched to considerable width. When employed ina diaper it has been found that the diaper can be stretched to at leastof its width and at the same time has very good restoring propertiesafter repeated washings.

Preferably the above knit fabric is knit on a circular knitting machinein order to provide a tubular configuration 16. In the preferred form ofthe invention the tubular configuration is formed into a Z or S shape 18at the center of the diaper to provide a four-ply construction in theare-a of the diaper which receives the greatest amount of secretion andurine from the user. Then the diaper is sewn along `lines 20 and 22 tosecure the diaper together and properly position the four-plyconstruction. Suitable edge binding (not shown) is placed on the exposededges 24 of the diaper to complete the diaper.

As an example of the above construction a tubular knit fabric of 13inches was folded in the manner described and provides a diaper of 9inches in width. This diaper can then be stretched to a width of 18inches to 20 inches, if necessary, in order to conform to the contour ofvarious sized users. At the same time the diaper will restore to its-original 9 inch width after washing. This is of particular advantage tothe parents who have more than one child in diapers since this new andimproved diaper will fit various sized children and it will therefore beunnecessary to purchase various sized diapers.

Looking now to FIGURE 4, a modified form of the diaper is shown. As inFIGURES 2 and 3 the interconnected knit diaper material 10 is knit intoa tubular form 16. The tubular knit member 16 is then folded to form anupper tubular portion 26. The tubular member 16 is then sewn, in anysuitable manner at 30 along the full length of the diaper to form thetwo separate tubular members 26 and 28. Then the diaper is again sewnalong lines 32 and 34 to form a four-ply area in the center of thediaper. The edges 24 are then bound to prevent unraveling of the diapermaterial. This provides a diaper functionally equivalent to that ofFIGURES 2 and 3.

The further modification of FIGURE 5 also provides a four-ply effect inthe area in the center of the diaper which receives the largest amountof secretion and urine. The modification of FIGURE 5 is similar to thatof FIG- URE 4 except the tubular members 26 and 28 of FIG- URE 4 |areknit as separate tubular members 36 and 38. As in the diapers of FIGURES2-4 the tubular members 36 and 38 are sewn together along lines 40 and42 and bound on the edges 24 to prevent unraveling.

The herein disclosed diaper offers many obvious advantages over thoseshown in the prior art. The close knit cellular construction providessuperior adsorption of the moisture resulting in superior absorptionproperties. Furthermore, this new and novel knit diaper can be stretchedto at least 100% of its width and will be restored to its original widthafter washing, thereby eliminating the necessity of having to purchase alarge number of various sized diapers as the baby grows or when a familyhas two or more babies in diapers. Also, the disclosed diaper provides asmooth surface adjacent the body of the user which will not chafe orharm the users skin. This diaper further provides additional thicknessof the knit material in the area which receives the largest and mostdirect stream of moisture. The herein disclosed diaper is alsoinexpensive to manufacture and will therefore be competitive withdiapers with lesser absorption properties and of harsher material whichwill irritate the skin of 4the consumer.

Although We have described in detail the preferred embodiments of ourinvention, we contemplate that many changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope or spirit of our invention, and we desire to belimited only by the claim.

That which is claimed is:

A stretch diaper comprising a tubular knit material being two rib knitfabrics inter-linked so that the wales of one knit fabric -lie betweenthe wales of the other rib knit fabric on both the face and back of saiddiaper, a portion of said tubular knit material being folded underanother portion of said tubular knit material to form -a four-plysection centrally of said diaper and means connecting said foldedportion of said tubular knit material to 'another portion of saidtubular knit material to provide a diaper with a reinforced centralportion.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,811,813 6/1931Wagner 66-200 X 2,062,594 12/1936 McNair 12S-284 2,568,595 9/1951 Rohrer66--177 2,845,069 7/1958 arnison et al. 128-284 2,991,786 7/1961Sullivan 128-284 3,030,956 4/1962 Nichols 128-284 3,063,452 11/1962 DelGuercio 128-284 3,072,124 1/1963 Jamison 12S-284 3,109,428 11/1963Jamison 12S-284 3,113,570 12/1963 Holliday 12S- 284 3,177,873 4/1965Jamison 12S-284 3,183,909 5/1965 Roehr 12S- 290 FOREIGN PATENTS1,165,801 10/1958 France.

OTHER REFERENCES Press, Man-Made Textile Encyclopedia, IntersciencePub., N.Y., 1959, TS 1548.5 M28.C2, pp. 418-419.

Reichman, Principle of Knitted Outerwear Fabrics and Garments, NationalKnitted Outerwear Association, 1961, NY., TT682RY, pp. 15-16, and960119.

MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner.

DONALD W. PARKER, Examiner.

R. FELDMAN, Assistant Examiner.

